PRINCETON — If Saturday’s game against Butler was a promising loss, Wednesday against Lafayette qualified as a concerning win.

Four days after taking the Bulldogs to the final possession, the Princeton Tigers trailed for much of the game and needed overtime to finally top the Leopards, 81-80, at Jadwin Gym.

“I think we were very fortunate tonight, and that’s a huge understatement,” coach Mitch Henderson said. “I think we were a little bit happy with the way we played on the road against Butler.”

The biggest play of the night for the Tigers came from senior Will Barrett, who cleaned up a Denton Koon miss with 11 seconds to play in overtime, got fouled, and then calmly knocked down the two free throws to put Princeton up 81-78.

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“There are definitively so many things we can improve on, but in a tight game like that it’s always good to take good shots,” Barrett said. “I think we did that, and we were feeling good at the end.”

After Lafayette’s Nick Lindner was intentionally fouled on the other end — a strategy Henderson said he picked up from former Princeton coach Bill Carmody, who Henderson was an assistant under at Northwestern — Lindner hit both shots. Koon missed a pair on the ensuing Princeton possession, but freshman Spencer Weisz was able to tip the rebound off a Leopards player.

“Spencer just has a little bit of a knack,” Henderson said.

Lindner would steal the final inbound pass, but there wasn’t enough time left on the clock to advance the ball down the floor.

Barrett led the Tigers with 22 points, while junior guard Ben Hazel scored a career-high 14. Weisz also had a career-high with 10.

After being held scoreless in the opening half, Hazel looked like a different player in the second, going 5-of-6 from the field after the break. Ten of those points came immediately after a pair of Koon free throws at the 13:15 mark of the second half gave the Tigers their first lead since the very beginning of the game.

“I’ve been working pretty hard in practice and the offseason, so when the time does come I’m ready to step up and do what I have to do to help the team win,” Hazel said.

Princeton opened up a nine point lead with 5:33 to play, but couldn’t put the Leopards away. A Bryce Scott three with just 1:17 left brought the score to 68-66, and on the next Princeton possession Jimmy Sherburne missed a tough jumper from the corner. That gave Lafayette the ball back the 27 seconds left on the clock, and junior big man Dan Trist hit a half-hook across the middle to tie the game.

Hazel couldn’t make anything happen on the Tigers final possession of regulation. Scott missed a half court shot to send the game into overtime.

The problem for the Tigers early was on the defensive end, allowing the Leopards to shoot 64 percent from the field in the first half. Guard Seth Hinrichs was particularly effective, hitting five of his six shots in period, scoring 12 of his eventual 27 points.

“I think we lost our way a little bit defensively, but I also think we were just sleepwalking in the first half,” Henderson said.

Princeton was able to hang around largely to some timely three-point shooting —Barrett hit two of his three first half attempts — and by hitting the offensive boards. At the half, the deficit — which had been as large as nine — was down to 36-31.

While the Tigers were certainly happy to escape with the win, the overall mood in the postgame wasn’t particularly celebratory.

“There were some positives on our end, but for the most part we didn’t approach the game the right way,” Henderson said.

NOTES: Junior forward Denton Koon came off the bench against the Leopards as he has all three games this season, with Henderson electing to go with freshman Spencer Weisz. Koon started 24 games last season…After hitting just 23-of-37 foul shots against Butler, Princeton was better from the stripe Wednesday, hitting 13-of-18....Barrett, who usually wears No. 24, was forced to switch to No. 11 for overtime after getting blood on his jersey…Sophomore center Hans Brase missed overtime after fouling out with 2:05 left in regulation…Sherburne fouled out with 48 seconds left in OT.

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Former Trentonian sportswriter and utility man. New York Jets, Princeton basketball, Mercer/Bucks county high schools, Trenton Thunder. Tulane grad. Former Times-Picayune and NFL.com intern. Reach the author at nperuffo@trentonian.com
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